Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Could Donald Trump’s tax returns indicate support for the Bin Ladin family?

There are a lot of theories about why Donald Trump won’t release his tax returns. The only one we can dismiss out of hand is Trump’s own explanation — that he can’t release them because he’s under audit.

That piece of claptrap has been debunked ad nauseam. There’s no law that prevents him from releasing the information while the IRS is pouring through it.

So alternative theories about his unwillingness to disclose have emerged: He’s not really making as much money as he claims. He’s not really the multi-billionaire he claims to be. He’s not a successful businessman; he’s a failed businessman. He’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. He lied when he said he gives to charity. He doesn’t pay any taxes, or if he pays taxes at all, not nearly as much tax as the average working stiff.

Any or all of these may or may not be true. But any such speculation is fair, since he is seeking the presidency of the United States, and since he is the only candidate since before Richard Nixon who has kept his taxes as buried as some felon's stolen stash from a bank robbery.

Trump’s financial dealings:

the 9-11 nightmare theory

On the anniversary week of the 9-11 attack on the United States let me offer the scariest and most ominous speculation of all. I’m speculating that Trump hasn’t release his tax returns because they will reveal that he has been doing business with, and thus helping to support, the family of Osama bin Laden, and that he has contributed to middle-eastern charities that front for Al Queda and that helped to fund the terrorism of 9-11.

Trump’s possible connection to Bin Laden? Well, just for openers, Trump’s Federal Election Commission filings indicate he has a large hotel construction project in the works in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia through a pair of companies called THC Jeddah Hotel Advisor and DT Jeddah Technical Services Advisor.

So?

Well, if you want to get a substantial building project moving in Saudi Arabia, what’s your go-to company? Why, it’s the Binladen Group, founded by the father of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist who engineered the 9-11 attack. That company is populated to this day by the late master terrorist’s blood relatives.

In fact, various Bin Laden relatives and a Bin Laden-owned construction company were sued by more than three thousand 9-11 attack survivors, who claimed the terrorist attack was funded by charities set up by the bin Laden and its corporate machinery.

“Among the defendants were Al Queda, its members and associates, along with charities, banks, front organizations, terrorist organizations and financiers.” CBS New York and the AP reported.

Most of the cases were thrown out, not because they lacked merit but simply because the court felt it lacked jurisdiction.

Ivanka helps spill the beans

In May of last year, a trade journal called Hotelier Middle East reported “The Trump Hotel Collection is eying luxury properties in the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, The Trump Organization executive vice president of development & acquisitions, Ivanka Trump told Hotelier Middle East in an exclusive interview.”

Trump’s daughter also told the trade journal, “We are looking at multiple opportunities in Abu Dhabi, in Qatar, in Saudi Arabia, so those are the four areas where we are seeing the most interest. We haven’t made a final decision in any of the markets but we have many very compelling deals in each of them.”

Trump sold the 45th floor of Trump World Tower to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for $4.5 million in June 2001, according to a city Finance Department spokeswoman. In 2008, the apartments became part of the Saudi Mission to the United Nations, records show.The five apartments included 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms at the time of the sale, and had yearly common charges of $85,585 for building amenities, documents obtained by The News show. If those common charges remain the same, Trump was paid at least $5.7 million by the Saudi government since 2001.

Seeks access, stiffs broker

The real estate agent who set up the 45th floor purchase said that Trump was not only seeking the $5.7 million but also access via the deal to markets in the middle-east.

By the way, the broker, Rebecca Ocampo, claimed Trump stiffed her out of the broker’s fee although for some unknown reason that I don’t want to speculate about, she dropped a law suit. There’s probably a whole other story in there that some enterprising reporter might want to dig out..

Given that it was a Bin Laden who engineered the 9-11 terror attack, and that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Citizens, Trump’s interest in Saudi construction projects and with various other Saudis makes me wonder.

Did Trump support the Bin Laden family?

Blood on Trump’s hands?

Did Trump, in a frenzy of greed, attempt to milk more wealth out of the Arabian desert by contributing to front “charities” that financed terror attacks on New York?

Does Donald Trump have the blood on his hands of thousands of innocent Americans who perished during the events of 9-11?

Trump might be able to clear his name of these suspicions just by disclosing his complete tax records. His ongoing refusal to do so cannot but help make many Americans wonder.

Seriously though, it's plausible. Kurt Eichenwald's story today presents a half-dozen national-interest conflicts, none of which are as stark as this one would be, but all of which are highly problematic.

Sorry, Ken, but financing a system that defends against incoming missiles is hardly the kind of deal that puts blood on congressional representatives' hands. However, the contrary, which you appear to be advocating, might to do it. Re-read the "out, out damned spot" passage from Macbeth, then grab yourself a washcloth and a bar of soap. You may need them.

It's mid-September. A number of people are doing some very good work digging into issues of this sort. Revelations are regularly coming out about Trump's foundation, his influence peddling, his skirting of immigration issues--all of it disqualifying.

But here's the thing. Trump has been in the campaign now for well over a year. We have all seen who he is. HE HIMSELF is disqualifying. If a person with any sense of citizenship, decency, charity, humanity, and so on, takes a look at Donald Trump, they see a six foot three inch 267 pound jerk. He lies as easily and as shamelessly as he draws breath. He cannot talk about any political opponent of any sort, really, without insulting them in the manner of a pre-teen.

Anyone who looks at him and listens to him for any period of time who IS NOT offended by his presence in the race is not going to be persuaded by anything that comes out in the next wave of revelations. Short of him being convicted of an actual murder with DNA evidence and credible eyewitnesses, Donald Trump's supporters have essentially made up their mind.

Many of them are angry about immigration and the loss of blue-collar employment. Many of them are simply bigots. Many are rich people wanting to cut taxes further and to remove banking and corporate regulations. Many are evangelicals who want to make sure that the Supreme Court balance favors both corporate and social-conservative concerns. Some are a mix of all of that.

His campaign is being strategized by a serial sexual harasser whose offenses resulted in an 8-figure payment to a high-profile newscaster. It is also being strategized by the operator of a vicious, bigoted website that appeals to the worst of America. These quite obvious facts are also disqualifying.

Again, if this obvious, quite transparent, reality is not already sufficiently disqualifying for a candidate and his campaign, I do not think any addition revelations will matter.

What many of us are waiting for is a consensus to emerge among the august leadership of the mainstream news media and the establishment political press corps so that the nation can witness a Joseph Welch moment. "At long last, have you no decency?!"--or something like that.

But that will not happen, I am afraid, not even with more revelations of the sort that continue to come out. They are like the jaded referees of a dirty Vegas fight. They are going to stand back and let the boxers slug it out--even though one of the boxers is attempting to fight by normal rules.

When Trump won the Republican nomination, the mainstream press corp and the national TV new media saw him as normalized. That was it. That was enough.

And let's not forget that many members of the press corp are conservative. A number are religious. Many of them are rather wealthy or, at least, quite comfortable. They may not be enthusiastically voting for Trump, but they have friends and family who are.

And let's not forget that the major media conglomerates are mammoth corporations who would benefit from many of the deregulate, tax-cutting policies that Trump proposes. Rupert Murdoch is an obvious jerk, but the corporate heads of the other networks are not graduates of the Columbia School of Journalism. They may not hire dochnozzles like Bill O'Reilly and Steve Doocy or even have coffee with those types, but their business interests are quite similar to that of Fox.

So, there will be no Joseph Welch moment. If liberals want to see Hillary Clinton get elected, they have to hold their numbers and get out the vote. If she wins, it looks as if it will be very very close. And lord help us if she doesn't.